Vodafone messes up my direct debit, then issues a late payment charge

Paying the price for Vodafone making an error in my direct debit.
Photograph: Alamy

Vodafone has completely messed up my direct debit. I had a two-year contract on my mobile phone which expired in September 2015. I had been paying the bill by monthly direct debit, but for reasons not apparent to me, towards the end of the contract the direct debit did not go through and for seven months, from September to March, I kept receiving automated text messages saying I had failed to pay my bill. There was also a late payment charge added.

I explained to Vodafone that this should have been taken via a direct debit and that I objected to the late payment charge as it was its mistake. The employee acknowledged that Vodafone’s systems had created an error and said he would remove the charge. It was agreed I would pay the outstanding balance by a one-off payment, which I did.

In October I took out a new two-year contract with Vodafone with a new direct debit – this time organised by Carphone Warehouse. But when October’s bill came to be paid I found that Vodafone had again not operated the direct debit and again had added a late payment charge.

I spoke to them again but then received a succession of text messages telling me to pay the bill or I would have my phone cut off. I have talked to Vodafone staff as far afield as Cairo and Romania, but despite promises to get this sorted out nothing has happened. JM, Wimbledon

To compound your woes, it turns out that Vodafone’s automated message does not give customers the figure of the entire amount it claims to be outstanding, and the reason your bill was not cleared was due to the wrongly applied late payment charges. But it should not have taken so long – a shocking seven months – to sort this out.

Vodafone said in a statement: “We’re sorry our direct debit process let JM down. We appreciate how frustrating this has been. We will refund the late payment fees of £29 that we charged in error, and can confirm there are no late payment markers on her credit file.

“We have waived this month’s bill while we make sure the direct debit is correctly set up, and we’ll offer a further three months’ free line rental in recognition of the problems she has faced.”

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